Combat Stories and King's Gambit

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ArnesonStidgeley

The following season my King's Gambit suffered its first defeat for two years - against the strongest opponent it had yet faced. It was a case of the winner being the player who made the penultimate blunder - I had a winning attack the move before the end.

 

jerry2468

How is this won? After Rad1 Nd7 with no clear win. You are 2 pieces down with no attack.

ArnesonStidgeley

My final King's Gambit of the season was against a good school friend and featured the Double Muzio. The win left me 4-1-1 for the year and 13-7-2 lifetime.

 

The following season was 2-1-1, after that it was 7-1-0 and by the time I took a 12-year break from chess it was 28-11-4 lifetime. That's not bad. Perhaps I should return to it - but it would mean wading through Sicilian theory again.
ArnesonStidgeley
Musikamole wrote:

My secondary goal with the King's Gambit is, after getting some playing experience, teach it to my elementary band and orchestra students, where I formed a school chess club. They get to eat lunch with me, Mr. Heflin, while playing chess. As you said, this attack on f7 with the KG will reinforce what I have already taught regarding Black's most vulnerable square in the opening. 

They are mostly brand new beginners, so I need to teach them really simple stuff, like Scholar's Mate, and other basic mates on f7, or else they will lose against me right away.

So far, I have taught my students the Fried Liver Attack, and this silly name alone makes chess all the more fun for them. Since teaching the Fried Liver, my students were inspired to invent openings with silly names of their own. 


You might want to take a look at a blog entry I made here on chess.com about a summer school program I did.

ArnesonStidgeley
Musikamole wrote:

Good Grief! Is this it? The Double Muzio?  I found a game where White is down a knight and a pawn after seven moves, and then goes on to win.

Wow! Chigorin had only three pieces to Black's five pieces, with both sides having queens on the board, and won by checkmate. Unbelievable. I have never seen something so lopsided before, regarding material.



No. That's only the (single) Muzio. You've got to sac' on f7 with the Bishop as well. See my earlier post for the only competitive game I played with it. It has 4-0-4 on chess.com' s master games database.

ArnesonStidgeley
jerry2468 wrote:

How is this won? After Rad1 Nd7 with no clear win. You are 2 pieces down with no attack.


Hi, Jerry - yes, it was probably an exaggeration to say "winning" (I shouldn't idolise chess engines), but... I do have open files against his uncastled king and four pawns for the two pieces. It's looking pretty good.

Ben_Dubuque
ArnesonStidgeley wrote:

My final King's Gambit of the season was against a good school friend and featured the Double Muzio. The win left me 4-1-1 for the year and 13-7-2 lifetime.

 

The following season was 2-1-1, after that it was 7-1-0 and by the time I took a 12-year break from chess it was 28-11-4 lifetime. That's not bad. Perhaps I should return to it - but it would mean wading through Sicilian theory again.

 well just do what I do, instead of fighting fire with water, understand what one artical here said, Sacrifices are all but Built into the Sicillian, It is fun and Tactical to.  Also ever try the gran Prix attack?

Ben_Dubuque

here is another one, Sometimes, I just want to have fun, as in the character of the KG, it was not as sound as it could have been.

Musikamole
ArnesonStidgeley wrote:
Musikamole wrote:

As promised, here is my first ever King's Gambit game. I made numerous errors, but got lucky and pulled out a win.




h3 (your fifth) is not really a King's Gambit move: your're after quick development and pressure on the f file and building a big centre. What was the idea behind h3?

7Qd3 feels better, getting your Q out after the swap on c4, rather than just swapping your good Bishop (albeit giving Black a misplacedf Knight).

After that there were - as you say - several errors.


Wow! many posts to catch up on. I played h3 to prevent a possible Ng4. Ng4 looked scary with my king exposed.

Musikamole
ArnesonStidgeley wrote:
Musikamole wrote:

Good Grief! Is this it? The Double Muzio?  I found a game where White is down a knight and a pawn after seven moves, and then goes on to win.

Wow! Chigorin had only three pieces to Black's five pieces, with both sides having queens on the board, and won by checkmate. Unbelievable. I have never seen something so lopsided before, regarding material.



No. That's only the (single) Muzio. You've got to sac' on f7 with the Bishop as well. See my earlier post for the only competitive game I played with it. It has 4-0-4 on chess.com' s master games database.


Thanks for posting all of those KG games. The knight sac, according to chess engines, is a blunder, and yet it can win because of the lightening fast pressure exerted on f7. Wow!

AndyClifton

This is regarding the game in #10...

I don't think you shouldn't be worried about stuff like Ng4.  You should do what you eventually did, play d4 and then take the f-pawn.  The position after White's 8th move is a King's Gambit player's dream come true:  strong center, good development, open f-file and you're no longer a pawn down!  Black can't play that passively in this opening without real danger of getting rolled.

You could play 9 Qd2 forcing Black to "unvelop" with Ng8.  But your move was good too, since Black couldn't castle there without hanging a piece.  Either way, you have a good-sized advantage, and it will probably only get bigger as things progress.

ArnesonStidgeley
Musikamole wrote:

I would like to hear of your first chess battles using the King's Gambit as your opening weapon. What was your initial win/loss ratio, ballpark?  Also, is there a better opening for the beginning chess player to play than the KG?

Hello again, Musik. I think the KG is a good first opening for someone of your strength to delve into but I am not so sure that it's worthwhile teaching to your music/chess students. At the very beginning level - which they are at - they simply drop pieces and don't notice when their opponents' put pieces en prise. That would be what I would focus on - as for the opening, drum into them, "Centre pawns, knights and bishops, castle, connect the rooks" [which does fit the KG - sort of]

But others might disagree - and I might be wrong.

ArnesonStidgeley
Musikamole wrote:

Thanks for posting all of those KG games.


You're welcome, Musik. It was a pleasant way to pass a Saturday afternoon - wading through old score books (my wife was cooking downstairs and I had spent the morning having breakfast with some chums and then listening to two of my children play in an orchestra - I'm not sure I do need to get out more).

I hadn't realised before that my teenage KG score - 28-11-4 (78%) - was so good. Was my OTB rating then based on lots of cheap wins? Perhaps not - there were less than half-a-dozen that were 15 moves or fewer.

Full disclosure: the ratings I posted in those games were based on British Chess Federation (BCF) gradings - I multiplied by eight and add 600 to get Elo equivalent (a calculation which, I understand, was then a reasonable approximation - see http://grading.bcfservices.org.uk/help.php#elo for more today).

Musikamole
ArnesonStidgeley wrote:
Musikamole wrote:

Thanks for posting all of those KG games.


You're welcome, Musik. It was a pleasant way to pass a Saturday afternoon - wading through old score books (my wife was cooking downstairs and I had spent the morning having breakfast with some chums and then listening to two of my children play in an orchestra - I'm not sure I do need to get out more).

I hadn't realised before that my teenage KG score - 28-11-4 (78%) - was so good. Was my OTB rating then based on lots of cheap wins? Perhaps not - there were less than half-a-dozen that were 15 moves or fewer.

Full disclosure: the ratings I posted in those games were based on British Chess Federation (BCF) gradings - I multiplied by eight and add 600 to get Elo equivalent (a calculation which, I understand, was then a reasonable approximation - see http://grading.bcfservices.org.uk/help.php#elo for more today).


It sounds like you had a wonderful day. I teach band and orchestra to 4th - 6th grade students. What orchestra instruments do your children play?

Here's my most recent KG game. I had a winning advantage, but lost focus and blundered my queen. I did take the time to fully annotate this game with my comments, my thoughts. 



ArnesonStidgeley
Musikamole wrote:

It sounds like you had a wonderful day. I teach band and orchestra to 4th - 6th grade students. What orchestra instruments do your children play?

 


My 20yod is a good violinist and pianist; my 16 yos plays the trumpet and my 14yos plays the violin and piano okay - it was the two youngest who were playing on Satruday. My wife and I also have three other sons and they all dabble a bit.

This is moving rapidly OT [but that's fine too - it's a bit like a fb status update that takes on a life of its own]

I was at http://www.londonchessclassic.com yesterday - not a King's Gambit in sight but I did get to hob nob with IMs and chat in French with Mrs Kramnik.

ArnesonStidgeley
Musikamole wrote:

Here's my most recent KG game. I had a winning advantage, but lost focus and blundered my queen. I did take the time to fully annotate this game with my comments, my thoughts. 

 




Hello, Musik

3...Bd6 allows the Big Centre for White - e5 then d4 seems a fairly obvious refutation. You played e5 a move later when it was even better because of his Knight move allowing the fork.

6Qe2 looks natural, but Be2 might be better. Admittedly, e2 is not a square for the light-squared Bishop in the King's Gambit (c4 is its natural home) but it does speed up your castling - and that is a big King's Gambit idea. As it is, your Queen stops the Bishop doing anything at all.

9Nc3 might be better, givng back a third pawn for the piece (after Nxc3, etc) but not letting his Knight become a monster at e3.

So that makes you 1-0-1 now - yes?

PrawnEatsPrawn

One of the best things about the King's Gambit, is the propensity for miniatures:

 

 

(The shortest whole game I've played on this site)

bresando

My only correspondence chess  king gambit game as white so far (by trasposition via a 2.Bc4 move order, the proper KG line would be 1.e4 e5 2.f4 exf4 3.Bc4 Nc6 trasposing to the game)

Musikamole
ArnesonStidgeley wrote:
Musikamole wrote:

Here's my most recent KG game. I had a winning advantage, but lost focus and blundered my queen. I did take the time to fully annotate this game with my comments, my thoughts. 




Hello, Musik

3...Bd6 allows the Big Centre for White - e5 then d4 seems a fairly obvious refutation. You played e5 a move later when it was even better because of his Knight move allowing the fork.

6Qe2 looks natural, but Be2 might be better. Admittedly, e2 is not a square for the light-squared Bishop in the King's Gambit (c4 is its natural home) but it does speed up your castling - and that is a big King's Gambit idea. As it is, your Queen stops the Bishop doing anything at all.

9Nc3 might be better, givng back a third pawn for the piece (after Nxc3, etc) but not letting his Knight become a monster at e3.

So that makes you 1-0-1 now - yes?


Thanks for the comments. My record with the KG is 1 win and 2 losses.

Here is my other loss. I blundered my bishop on 32.Bg5 (??). I moved to a completely stupid square, thinking it was the correct square. My only possible explanation for these really stupid blunders is that I am currently fighting back pain and am on pain pills, so my concentration does comes and go, and my mind is in a bit of a fog.

Once I am healthy, I feel confident that I will be better able to convert these clearly winning adantages into victories, as I am not under any time pressure with the 10 second increment.

Why do I play while in pain? Well, I am currently at home on temporary disability, something new to me, and I am getting quite bored, so when I have half a brain, I choose to play chess to keep myself occupied. I can't stand watching tv.



Musikamole
Godspawn wrote:

"I had a winning attack the move before the end."

Please show your "winning" attack the move before the end.


I am glad that you caught that, and that was a mistake on my part. In that game, I had the advantage according to Houdini of  +1.50, and at the GM level, John Nunn says that a pawn or two advantage can be a decisive advantage, but not at all true for amateurs, especially beginners like myself.

I only see a game being won for me if I am up a full piece with both sides having about the same positions, but not by some combination of material and position advantage that a chess engine finds.

Converting a positional advantage found by a chess engine into a win? Forget it. I would need to master all of Silman's middle game book first.

If I am up a full piece, my one and only strategy is to trade down to an endgame that I know how to win, like a King and Rook vs. King.

I have learned recently that I am weak when it comes to winning when up a knight with no other pieces on the board, i.e., K+N+P vs. K+P. I have lost endgames like those, especially when my opponent's king and pawns are better placed. Pawns on the 6th rank are lethal! I don't know how to stop them.


Here's the final position where Houdini says that with best play, White has a 1 1/2 pawn advantage. Devising a plan for White would be a good exercise for me, and please chime in. What would your plans for White be, to convert this chess engine advantage into a win?

White's king does not look very happy, and even being up the exchange, it looks like a hard game for White to win. Actually, I would not want to be White! Laughing